It's why I have numerous bookshelves and keep most of those books I buy, at least the hardcovers. I'm a very fast reader (over 500 WPM), with high comprehension (despite what I exhibit here!), but I normally have 2 or 3 novels and 1 or 2 histories that I go back and forth on, depending on my mood, sometimes more, and these (Thrones) demand one's attention.
It will be interesting to see how they depict the Wall. For the most part in this first season they can just make it background matte painting or something, if they wanted. Or just computer graphics. But later on, in other books (think it was the third one) there is some significant action taking place on top of, around and even ON the Wall, so they will have to try to stay consistent (assuming they get that far) with what they do in this first season.
Well in the end I found a Game of Thrones audiobook that I'm borrowing. It's not how I'd want to originally read it, but it's great for "re-reading" it while I'm in the car. It puts the drive time to good use, and LA that's a substantial amount of time. Also it's interesting to hear a slightly different take on some of the inflections than I read the story with the first time. I've never really listened to audiobooks before, but especially for rereading or something light, it seems like a good idea.
Does anyone think this show will be difficult for the casual viewer to follow? Reading the books I'm constantly having to revisit the "family trees" and/or wikis. I hope HBO has a clean interactive website that provides some assistance.
I've listened to plenty and am a fan of the media. Especially if you have more than a 45 minute commute, the time flies by like nothing at all. The worst part is when you arrive at work and sit for another 15 minutes to finish off the chapter.
Even on my reread last year, I had to keep checking out the family trees because some of the names are so damn similar. I think it is going to require some intelligence to watch the show. It will probably lose a lot of the casual viewers the first couple of weeks.
By the way, I just wanted to say that I am ecstatic there is such a good following here on CF of this series. It will be nice to have fellow geeks to talk with after the show debuts. I've gotten about 6 friends to read the series now and I imagine interest will grow once the show starts.
I just got finished reading the first 4 books a month or so ago and I never bothered to check any of the family tree stuff. There were times I was unclear as to what all the relations were of certain people, but for all the important characters enough clues are given throughout the narrative to remind us. Unless they get overly complicated I think this won't be too much of an issue.
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HBO has a companion website with a puzzle that unlocks a sweet reward. http://themaesterspath.com/ You have to look around the web for clues, this page should help.
someone posted the reward if you don't feel like doing the puzzle: Spoiler <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rDtsYjNV0eI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is going to be so awesome. Spoiler Aria looks and sounds so perfect. It is going to be so great when she starts to get that mean streak in her and starts killing people.
I'm never one to come to this forum and promote my own work, but I just had an article of mine published previewing the series. Would be cool if you guys took a gander: http://bit.ly/eVmule Thanks!
Really cool write up. Congrats. I agree with almost everything you said about it. The only differences were I read it when there were two books finished and not just recently, and the political intrigue was one of the reasons I wanted to read it rather than it making me delay the decision to read it. I don't know anyone who'd been disappointed in the book series.
An excellent review and very well written. Now, having waited so long to read the series, you can suffer through the endless wait for the next book along with the rest of us. I also want to thank you turning me on to that site, as it lools very intriguing. Again, a good read. Members like you and Moes uncork writing talents from time to time that makes me appreciate ClutchFans all the more. Groovy!
